You’ve gotta love Wall Street. They can spot suckers a mile away and create a structured product to sell to them, meanwhile getting their own fees and profits upfront. Apple (which couldn’t get a triple-AAA rating from either agency) is dumping $17 billion of paper on the market, hoping someone is dumb enough to buy it.

Apple’s yields are also expected to beat those offered by some rival companies. Microsoft, which has a slightly higher rating than Apple, last week issued 10-year bonds that yielded 0.7 percentage points above 10-year Treasuries, says Matt Duch, a taxable fixed income portfolio manager at Calvert Investments, who plans to cut back on his Treasury holdings to get a piece of Apple.

For retail investors, getting a hold of Apple bonds also won’t be easy. It’s not entirely clear how many Apple bonds will be available to small investors. Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank AG who are overseeing Apple’s bond sale typically focus on institutional investors that can buy large blocks of bonds. Only later do these big players usually pass along smaller lots to Main Street investors. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-you-buy-apple-bonds-...

When markets crash --and they will soon enough-- then will be the time to go shopping for those bonds.

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